I have been a pastor for over 50 years now and rarely, if ever, have I seen the disagreement amongst Christians over anything as there is today over the topic of whether or not we should be taking the vaccines being offered for the Coronavirus Pandemic. A brief visit to Facebook will get you some very interesting knock’em down, drag’em out fights between Christians over the topic.
There are those who see these vaccines as the light at the end of a very dark tunnel. They think it’s a good, even necessary, thing. Then there are those who vigorously oppose the immunizations. Some are seeing it as being part of a huge conspiracy. As I heard one pastor recently put it: “This Coronavirus Pandemic is a drill, a dress rehearsal to work out the bugs for the globalist agenda of a one world government.” He says that the vaccines will have a computer chip in them which will be used by the AntiChrist for the Mark of the Beast as described in the Book of Revelation in the Bible.
All this leads to a huge problem for many sincere Christians and that is confusion as to what to do. And the fact of the matter is this: there are many people, good people, wonderful Christians, on both sides of the issue. If it wasn’t for this pandemic, they would be agreed on most other Biblical and theological issues.
When it comes to the decision of whether or not to take the vaccine, here is my counsel about what to do: turn to God for His guidance and direction. The Bible tells us that we are to “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6.) We have God’s wonderful promise: “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him” (James 1:5.)
So here is how to decide whether or not to take the COVID-19 vaccine: go to your knees and ask God in prayer what He wants you to do. The decision whether or not to take the vaccine is a decision every believer should make between themselves and God. It is not made on the basis of what people on Facebook tell us to do. Indeed, that’s the basic Biblical principle for making all of life’s decisions.
As a believer, you are under God’s authority and His alone. What others do or don’t do should not enter into your final decision.
That is how my wife and I arrived at our decision: we prayed and studied the Word, asking God to guide us into the path we should take (like we do for all of our life’s decisions…) and He clearly led us.
As a matter of fact, when people say to others things like “I can’t believe that you went and got vaccinated! That’s awful!” or “What? You’re not getting the vaccine? You’re a terrible person!” they are guilty of the sin of judging. The Bible says, “You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother?”
Really what others do is none of our business. That’s true with all of our healthcare issues. We don’t ask others things like, “Do you have hemorrhoids?” and then scold them, “Why in the world are you not using Preparation H?” What we choose to do with our health care issues are up to us and us alone.
I trust that you will make your decision, in prayer, between you and God alone and then do whatever He tells you to.
Romans 14:22 “Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves.”
(For a fuller treatment of this issue, go to my YouTube channel, to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eu1ewoFVmX4)
